Cybersecurity Awareness Among Students During the COVID-19 Digital Transformation of Education: A Case Study at the Muscat (Oman) Schools

Abstract

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has developed numerous complicated challenges, and it has equally opened the door to another deadly force, known as cybercrime; many reports have indicated that cyberattacks have increased by 500% since the pandemic. While many awareness campaigns are conducted, these campaigns go through many challenges to develop effectiveness, cost coverage, and sustainability. Increasing public awareness of cybersecurity can be a critical strategy in preventing cybercrime or mitigating its impact at some level. Unfortunately, young people are an essential part of the community, and they are immature to recognize the dangers of these kinds of crimes to avoid being a target by cybercriminals. Therefore, the paper's viewpoint is to reform and update the education curricula through the following two objectives: discovering the consequences of COVID-19 on children's digital lives and generating information about current cybersecurity awareness levels among post-Basic education students in Muscat. The survey was conducted in early 2021 on 265 participants from six private schools. The results show that 83% of the students were exposed to cybersecurity incidents during the pandemic, and two-thirds think cybersecurity should be integrated into school curricula. However, awareness campaigns seem limited since 77% of students did not attend or hear about them.